Wartime Austerity Cooking

Thank you to Mama Bake and Emma Chow for the mention in their latest article about ‘Austerity Cooking’ CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE… It’s always good to find articles like this and I devour them with interest. Anzac Day is of course next Friday (April 25th).

But I can’t give a shout out to Mama Bake without making a comment on what they appear to be all about.. Mum’s getting together to do big batch cooking!

Many years ago I worked as a volunteer for the ‘Mahone Bay Settler’s Museum’ in Nova Scotia, Canada (I now live back in the UK where I’m born and bred). One of the specific things I volunteered most weeks for was the ‘jams and jellies’ big batch cooking several of us did together in a commercial kitchen at the Lions Club. We methodically would cook up and bottle maybe 70-80 jars of jams and jellies which were then labelled and sold in a local store to raise money for the museum.

During those times I often thought what a good idea it was that a bunch of ladies worked together and produced vast quantities of food so when I looked through MamaBakes website and read that Mum’s were getting together, all cooking up a large batch of food each then sharing the finished dish with the other Mum’s (and therefore returning home at the end of their communal cooking session with several different dishes) I thought of those times jam and jelly making at the museum.

Reading about what Mama Bake is doing I can’t but help think what a fantastic idea and maybe ladies did that back in the 1940s too, certainly for celebrations one would have thought.

Yes, my local WI is planning exactly that – a big jam and chutney making session to make stuff to sell at the carnival fair in June. We’re raising money for the local women’s refuge. Thanks for the link, which I shall read with interest.

What a lovely article, and being Australian military myself, I love the sentiments about Anzac Day. Carolyn it seems you are having a very global reach!!!
Hope you and your hobbits and your new hobbit enjoy an austere easter, a big hug across the waves to you.

During my youth I lived in a village in Switzerland. The bakery used a huge wood fired oven and the baker baked every day including Sunday. On Sunday he baked very early in the morning and only specific items. When he was finished the families of the village while on their way to church would start bringing him their Sunday dinners. He would put these in his already hot oven and on the way home from church people would stop in to pick up their dinner or wait patiently while having a chat and a glass of wine. It was the most wonderful way to conserve energy and actually energize the social life of the village.